Category

Published on

18 Jul 2012

Abstract

Our objective is to educate researchers and graduate students about the fundamentals of cell and molecular biomechanics, and to provide an intense learning experience, and to facilitate interactions among engineers, biologists and clinicians. The goals are to help train a new generation of researchers with in-depth knowledge of mechanics and biology and to help engineers and biologists apply biomechanical approaches in biomolecular, cellular, tissue-level, animal model studies.

Bio

Professor Taber came to Washington University in St. Louis in 1997 as a founding member of the Department of Biomedical Engineering.

From 1982 to 1997, he was a professor at the University of Rochester in the department of mechanical engineering. From 1978 to 1982, he was a research engineer in the biomedical science department at the General Motors Research Laboratories.

Since 1990, Professor Taber has pioneered studies of the mechanics of growth and development of the heart and arteries. He and his students have developed the first mathematical models for cardiovascular growth and morphogenesis and were the first to measure stress, strain and interstitial pressure in the heart of the early chick embryo. With a blend of theoretical modeling and experimentation, these studies have provided new insights into our understanding of the mechanisms that drive heart development, as well as mechanical abnormalities that may play a role in congenital heart disease. Recently, Professor Taber has extended this work to the problem of brain folding.